Mondays are different now. They still feel like Mondays. Sundays are still crazy prep for school, can’t fall asleep because I keep running through how it will all go in my head, literally talking through the script to make sure I’ve got it. I write down the basics, a to-do list, in the morning before my first class, but it still feels crazy, like I’ve never done this before, like I’m gonna fuck it up. Seventeen years in. It’s fine. Really. I’m doing better this week than last week. We have learned from our travails. It will get easier. But normally, by this time of year, we’d have it down, we’d be teaching stuff we know backwards and forwards, and life would be chill. Well, as chill as it ever gets during the school year. Not so this year. This year, not so chill.
Saturday, I spent a good chunk of the day tracing Wonder Under for the new quilt…but first, I had to persuade this sweet asshole (the cat, not the man. He’s sweet. Not an asshole.) to get off the light table. I did record some of the tracing for my Patreon and posted that to my patrons yesterday, just to get an idea of how this works.
It was hot Saturday, so the cats did a lot of sleeping and let me do a lot of tracing…
Well. Eventually.
I’ve got about 8 yards of Wonder Under being filled up at the moment…I started in the 700s on Saturday…
Yes, sleep. Good kitty. And your little sister too…
Although Sunday, they were back to How Can We Be in the Way…
Sunday was a busy day, though, so I didn’t have a chance to trace anything until after 11 PM. Before that, I had an art group Zoom…
Where somehow I got corraled into posting a bunch of stuff…we’ll be doing an art exhibit of masks. So I’ll have to make another one. Apparently.
I also need to start making my Patreon rewards for sticking with me a year. Those are coming up soon. Back to the tracing…I have about 17 hours in and I made it to the low 1000s last night. Getting closer to done! But today is busy and needs to include exercise, plus three meetings/classes, so that’s a lot.
This is Saturday’s dot…it’s upside down in this picture. I really like this one.
Here it is again…right side up…the bottom one.
So much cat hair on black. Haven’t thought about how I will finish this…almost want to stretch it on a frame maybe. We’ll see. Quilting it would be a pain.
Then Sunday’s…wow. What a time-consuming bitch of a beautiful sunflower (you can’t see what I had to do to fix some of those picots).
Luna assisting…
My fingers smelled like the compost. Exciting stuff.
Nice sunflower. Took about 3 hours, I think. Maybe 2 1/2. Couching plus french knots plus picots. Wowza.
Here’s the month of May in my bullet journal, for those who like to see reality plus imperfection.
(The wine was not a factor…I did this earlier). Thursdays don’t really need bigger boxes. Plus document the shit we’re going through. This is how I keep track of life…monthly, weekly, daily. It keeps me on track.
Anyway, it’s all good. I also did some yard work. My goal was to fill two greenery trashcans a week, and I only got one filled, because of the heat. This week will be cooler. I can try again. My grading is done for now…one more thing to do after tonight. I want to be done with tracing by Friday…that’s about 100 pieces a night. That seems doable, although with the heat, the kittens are rampaging around when it cools down, which is when I have time to trace. After this, I cut things out, which will be much easier to do whenever and wherever. I need to decide if I have a suitable background fabric here soon, but ordering that stuff is so hard for me online. Colors are off. I bought a few before all this shut down…in person…ah, fabric stores. I remember ye well. Plus exercise today. I said that already, but I really need it. The heat really threw me. Hope ya’ll are well. I’m tired. We all are, for a variety of reasons. I’m lucky to have people around me who do things. Sometimes.
Kathy Nida 